The Light of Christ as Salvation and Judgment (Sunday of the Blind Man)

THE LIGHT OF CHRIST AS SALVATION AND JUDGMENT
(SUNDAY OF THE BLIND MAN)

By Johannes Karavidopoulos,
Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Unique in the New Testament, as a healing of a blind man from birth, is this one which the Evangelist John narrates to us in the passage 9:1–38. Several other cases of healings of blind men are preserved for us also by the remaining evangelists, not so much because blindness was a disease very widespread in Palestine and in the ancient East more generally, or because the compassion of Jesus toward this kind of sick people was great, but because these miracles prove His messiahship and at the same time constitute signs of a new reality which Christ brings into the world. The prophets of the Old Testament, describing the work of the expected Messiah, mention among its various aspects also the restoring of sight to the blind. Therefore He Who has the authority to restore sight again to the blind is none other than the Messiah.

Venerable Macarius of Altai (+ 1847)

Venerable Macarius of Altai
(November 8, 1792 – May 18, 1847) 

Archimandrite, founder of the Altai Spiritual Mission, spiritual writer, author of translations of the Bible and patristic literature into the Russian and Altai languages.

Day of Commemoration: May 18 (31)

Childhood Years and Education

Venerable Macarius, in the world Mikhail Yakovlevich Glukharyov, was born on November 8, 1792, in the family of the priest of the Cathedral of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos in the city of Vyazma of the Smolensk province. Mikhail received his initial, very good education from his father, who had completed the full course of the theological seminary, which in those times was a rarity. Father Yakov was a preacher well known in the district. He taught his son Latin so well that at the age of seven the boy could translate from the Russian language into Latin. At the age of 8 he was immediately placed into the 3rd class of the ecclesiastical school attached to the Forerunner Monastery of Vyazma.

Once, while returning home, he caught a cold and was ill for half a year. The illness caused serious complications to his vocal cords and lungs. Later, already as a priest, missionary, and teacher, he experienced significant difficulties because of this.

Upon completion of the school, Mikhail was transferred to the Smolensk Theological Seminary. In 1812, because of Napoleon’s invasion and the beginning of the Patriotic War, studies at the seminary were interrupted for a year. In 1813 Mikhail Glukharyov graduated from the seminary with distinction and was retained there as a teacher of Latin grammar.

By synodal decree of 1814, the seminary was required to send two of its best students for the formation of the second course of the renewed Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, and Glukharyov was one of them. Here he attracted the attention of the rector of the academy, Archimandrite Philaret (Drozdov; later Metropolitan of Moscow), who became his first spiritual mentor. “I surrendered my will to His Grace Philaret,” Father Macarius later wrote, “and did nothing and began nothing without his counsel and blessing, almost daily confessing my thoughts to him.” Mikhail was distinguished by deep knowledge in theology, history, geography, and excellent command of the Latin, German, French, Ancient Greek, and Ancient Hebrew languages.

Holy Martyrs Peter, Dionysios, Andrew, Paul, Christina, Herakleios, Paulinos and Venedimos in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Saint Peter was from the city of Lampsacus. When he was led before the ruler of the city of the Abydenians, Dacnus, and was ordered by him to sacrifice to Aphrodite, not only indeed was he not persuaded, but he confessed Christ as God, whereupon they crushed his whole body with various instruments of torture, and thus he delivered up his spirit. Paul and Andrew, who were from Mesopotamia, were soldiers under the ruler Dacnus, and they captured Athens. Dionysios and Christina among others were also arrested and thrown into prison. Christina however, who was beautiful and a virgin maiden, being moreover of marriageable age, was pressured by Paul and Andrew to have relations with them, though of course they accomplished nothing. And not only did they fail to persuade her, even by force, but on the contrary they themselves repented of their way of life because of Christina’s exhortations, and thus they believed in Christ. Therefore they, together with Dionysios, were stoned to death, while Saint Christina, who threw herself upon them, had her head cut off.

2. It sounds paradoxical and incomprehensible! A virgin maiden, Christina, exceedingly beautiful and cast into prison, not only resisting the amorous intentions of her rulers — if she had yielded, she would have gained her freedom or would have greatly improved her life — but even succeeding in persuading them to become followers of the Lord, that is, for them to join her faith, to such a degree that in the end they also gave their very lives in a martyric manner! How did this unbelievable thing happen? Saint Joseph the Hymnographer attempts an answer:

Prologue in Sermons: May 18

 

A Means for Successful Struggle Against Evil Thoughts and the Passions

May 18

(A Word of Saint Ephraim, on how one ought with every diligence to honor the holy books.) 
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The word of God says that the imagination of the heart of man is evil from his youth (Gen. 8:21). And truly, nothing persecutes us throughout life so much as evil thoughts. You may intend even a good deed, yet something unclean will unfailingly attach itself to it. You stand at prayer, and even there sometimes you will not be freed from temptations of thought; they speak about God, about faith, about eternal salvation, and even there wicked questions and thoughts contrary to the teaching of the faith begin to present themselves to our mind. In general, it is difficult even to say how much evil we think in life, and how much sinful and impure matter nests within the soul.

And meanwhile, one cannot remain indifferent to all this impure and sinful matter; for the word of God says that an unrighteous thought is an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 15:26), and that nothing unclean shall enter into the Kingdom of God (Rev. 21:27). Therefore sinful thoughts are not insignificant; therefore the Lord will judge us also for them; therefore we too must struggle against them unceasingly, with all the powers of our soul. And for successful struggle one must know the means that are trustworthy in battle. What then are these means? Saint Ephraim says concerning this the following:

Synaxis of the Holy Hierarchs of Kythrea

In 2018, the 17th of May, the feast day of Saint Athanasios of Chytri, the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus established also the Synaxis of all the Holy Bishops of Kythrea (ancient Chytri) to be honored together.

For the first Bishop of Chytri (today known as Kythrea), Saint Pappos the Confessor, there is no information concerning his place of origin. He was ordained bishop in 309 A.D. He is characterized as a confessor, because he was persecuted and tortured during the persecutions, from which he survived. He enjoyed great respect among the other bishops and the flock, because of his life and his age. For this reason, in 367 A.D., after the repose of the Bishop of Salamis (Constantia), that is, the Archbishop of Cyprus, the Bishops of Cyprus ask Saint Pappos, being already a bishop for 58 years, to propose the new archbishop.

Saint Pappos withdraws, prays fervently, and a heavenly voice reveals to him what he must do. Thus, accompanied by three bishops and two deacons, he goes to the marketplace of Salamis, where he finds the monk Epiphanios buying grapes, accompanied by 2 other monks. Epiphanios was from Palestine, became a monk in Egypt, founded a Monastery in Palestine, and came to Cyprus, where he visited Saint Hilarion the Great, who was practicing asceticism near the village of Episkopi of Paphos. Epiphanios was preparing to depart from Cyprus.

Homily for the Sunday of the Blind Man (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily for the Sunday of the Blind Man

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

“Blinded in the eyes of my soul, I come to You, O Christ, like the man blind from birth, crying to You in repentance: You are the Most Radiant Light of those in darkness.” (Kontakion, Tone 4)

The Holy Church, celebrating the healing of the man blind from birth, assigns to this celebration one of the Sunday days of the most important part of the ecclesiastical year — Holy Pentecost — thereby indicating that the question of spiritual blindness is the fundamental question of our life. For we live in the world created by God, and our life is subject to those laws which the Lord established for the universe created by Him.

But the Lord is not only the Lawgiver of the Universe, but also the Source and Giver of life, because He gives to everything in the world “life, breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25). And He Himself is Life. “In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men” (John 1:4). Therefore, if we wish to know God, then the path to such knowledge is possible for us precisely through life, as through that which was created by God.

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Blind Man (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Blind Man 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). 

- The answer of the blind man, who received sight by the command of Christ God, to the Pharisees. -

The present Sunday, beloved brothers and sisters, is called in the Church tradition the Sunday of the Blind Man, because today it is appointed to read from the Gospel of John the sacred account concerning the miraculous healing by Jesus Christ of a man blind from birth. The miracle of healing took place thus: the Lord spat on the ground, made clay from the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said to him: "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam," which means: sent. He went and washed, and came back seeing (John 9:6–7). Some of the eyewitnesses of this most glorious miracle glorified the Lord and believed in Him; among those who believed was first of all the former blind man himself, while others, especially the Pharisees, hated Jesus Christ even more, slandering Him, as though He performed miracles by demonic power, although a demon never yet healed a single person from blindness, nor can it; for his dominion is for a time the dominion of death and evil, and not the dominion of life and mercy.

Holy Apostles Andronikos and Junia in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. This Apostle of the Lord, after traversing as though having wings the whole inhabited world, uprooted from the foundations every delusion by his preaching concerning Christ, having also as follower of him the all-wondrous Junia, who had already been deadened to the world and lived only for Christ. The result of their activity was that they drew many people to the knowledge of God, thus causing the destruction of the idol temples. Wherever they went they built divine churches, drove away unclean spirits from people, and healed incurable sufferings. In the end, as human beings, they departed from this life. These apostles the Apostle Paul remembers in the Epistle to the Romans. "Greet," he says, "Andronikos and Junia my kinsmen, who also before me became Christians."

2. The kinship of the Apostle Paul toward the apostles celebrated today, Andronikos and Junia, as also their before-him entry into the Church as members of Christ, is among the points which the Holy Hymnographer Joseph strongly touches upon, because he sees them being projected by Paul himself as proofs of the important position of these in the Church. The Apostle Paul, that is, by mentioning particularly Saints Andronikos and Junia in the Epistle to the Romans, shows that these are apostles who hold official position in the Church. “As distinguished indeed among the Apostles the blessed Paul proclaims you in the Church, O blessed ones” (Ode 5). “As kinsman of Paul and as having become before him a disciple, together with him now we honor you, having gathered in faith, O Andronikos” (Ode 5).

Prologue in Sermons: May 17

The Guardian Angels Depart From Us When We Remain In Sins

May 17

(A discourse on how one ought to stand in church with fear and trembling.) 
 
By Archpriest Victor Guryev

By His ineffable mercy, the Lord granted to each of us a Guardian Angel. The Guardian Angels, by the will of God, remain with us, teach us good, and turn us away from evil. But here is the question: do they always remain with us? Do they ever depart from us? Do they leave us at some time? What shall we say to this?

The Church discourse says: “To every believer an Angel comes, if only we ourselves do not drive him away from us by evil deeds. As smoke drives away bees and the stench drives away doves, so also our foul-smelling sin drives away from us our Guardian Angel. Therefore, says the word of God, ‘He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.’”